Ryan Higa in Singapore

Hello.. again.. Two post in the same day! Wow.. :P
So many things happened these few months, so I have lots to write about :)

If you see my previous post, about Kina in Manila, maybe you remember I met the tour manager from SoulmannaLive, Pauline.. So we ended up in the same flight back to Singapore, talked briefly before the flight departure (Got some trouble with the custom, so we're separated) :(
Basically I asked her who's coming next, and she answer diplomatically that she can't really inform it yet, but there is a youtuber coming in the end of August.
Since i knew Ryan tweeted that he's heading Asia, then I asked Pauline if Soulmanna going to handle Ryan's tour as well. She just smile, and didn't really say yes (nice job on keeping the secret!) :P

The show was finally announced, it will be held in Wave house Sentosa, on 1st September. There were several different ticket option, $38 for standard Q&A session, additional $50 for meet and greet (only if you're the first 150 people on the line), and $150 for a VIP (M&G plus dinner at Wavehouse). I didn't plan to attend, coz it's saturday, and work has been quite tiring, so i planned to just relax, drink some coffee, and enjoy some books.

Around 3-4 days before the show, Pauline send me a DM to my twitter (yes, we followed each other, can you imagine how we'll live without twitter, whatsapp, and all those social media?).. She asked if i want to volunteer as Merch people at Ryan's show. I said sure, coz i think one relaxing saturday can always be replaced. But a chance to learn how a concert/event organizer do their work is too good to be missed. The extra point was ofcourse to help Ryan (hey, youtuber is kind of Indie, they need our support! It's great to be able to put your hand and help on some of their events! And i love my experience helping on Kina's Merch table.. haha..)

Then she asked me if i have some more friends.. Ofcourse i have! haha.. Few months back (maybe even more than a year already), I meet some nice girls through Wongfu, Marilyn, Yi Thying, Gen, Jamie, and Evelyn. I knew they'll love to help out as well. But Marilyn was travelling, and Gen also has some previous appointment, so they can't go. At the end, Yithying, Jamie, Eve and me came down to Wavehouse around 4.

And.. The queue is super-duper long! It's like crazy! And the sun is hooooot!

I guess that shows how much higaholics love Ryan, props to you all! :)
So we entered Wavehouse, met Wenona, another manager of Soulmanna, and she introduced us to theRealRyanHiga, and Greg (@slopsmcgee). We also met Daniel and Sam from One Click Wonders who has been photographing all Youtube events by Soulmanna the past year.
They are a bunch of nice people :)

We found out that they didn't bring enough tags, so YiThying and me run back to Vivo, trying to get some.
When we reach the venue, it's already 5.30, and the M&G for VIP has started.
Rish (one of the event coordinator) told us that Wenona need one people to help her up there (VIP venue is in 2nd floor). Since they were still cutting the name tags, and I realized my clumsy fingers don't really work well with scissors, so I go up, and Yithying stays with Evelyn, Sam, and Jamie, guarding the entrance table.

On the second floor, the fans coming for M&G is so hyped! The energy level is super high!
Again I was amazed on how Ryan could engage all these people :D
I take over Wenona's task on taking photos. So, if there are some of you who get blurry photo, I am deeply sorry! But i guess they allowed you to take more photos during the dinner, right? :)
After that Rish asked me to prepare some plates for their dinner, so I took some food, and prepare the table, while Ryan, Greg, and Rish moved from one table to another table to greet all the VIPs.

After finishing their dinner, the second M&G started at around 7. The sun is still up, so the early photos are good. Then around 8, it is so dark, and the wavehouse put on the lighting. Too bad the lighting was too bright, so there are some fans who got blurry photo :( Sorry guys! But we manage to re-take some photos for some people. Ryan looked really tired though, he has been drinking lots of Redbulls (at least I saw 3? or 4?). They gave Ryan around 30 minutes break before the next session, Q&A.

The Q&A is quite fun. There are some question tweeted by the fans, and Ryan answered it.
Then you can also find some video in youtube where Ryan learned singlish.. :)
Then he also sing Nice Guy, and also took some footage for his video (out already in Youtube!), the title is "Clenching my Booty". Actually, they took footage in all Ryan's Asia Show (SG, KL, and HK)

After the event finished, ofcourse we need to take photo.. Right? :P
So, here's the photo of the team :)

Credit photo - from Soulmanna live facebook page

Thank you Pauline, Wenona, and Rish for letting us be a part of the event crew. It's a fun experience.

Thanks Daniel for taking our photos!

Thanks Sam for guiding and letting us know what to do :)

Thanks Greg, for keeping the fun atmosphere!

Thanks Ryan, it's inspiring to see how you manage to keep the smile even though you're super tired.

TEEHEE!

Kina Grannis in Manila - August 2012

Sooo...
I was so sad to missed Kina's Asia Pacific Tour last March.
I had planned to attend at least three of her show, in Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur and in Singapore.
The thing plan was to attend her KL show on March 13th with Toby (US Kinerd, who was working at Laos), then go to Jakarta with Toby and Rob and maybe Steph (Philiphine Kinerd), then we'll fly for her Singapore show, which was held on March 19th.
The thing was, at that moment I was waiting for my work visa in Singapore. Furthermore, March 17th is my birthday. So my parents ask me to go home. And i thought okay, at least I can try attending her Jakarta show.
To cut the long story short, my plan failed. There were so many things to do at home. So... i missed the entire shows, and passed the tickets to some people :)

Anyway, the Manila show was cancelled, I think not much ticket sold due to school exam period, but Kina still go to the venue, and perform free for her fans.
That's so nice of her!

Move forward to June 2012. I heard rumors that Kina is heading to South East Asia again, well, at least Manila.
So i contacted my friend, Steph. And kind enough, as soon as the tickets are on sale, she purchased one for me, and also one for Mark (Ireland Kinerd).
Luckily I've passed my 3 month probation on work, and allowed to take some leave.
I bought Jetstar tickets, and was actually thinking to find a hotel near by, and maybe spend some more time to travel around Manila.
Steph is super-awesome, she told me to stay at her place instead.

August 2012..
Manila was in a very bad weather, it has been raining non-stop for around 2 weeks.
I left Singapore at 6th August, early in the morning, with a little bit worried about the weather.
Thank God, the plane landed safely. It was only a small drizzle. Mark waited for me at the passanger arrival. And we went to his hotel in Resort World to kill the time until Steph arrived.
Steph finally arrived, and we went to Mall of Asia (Super-huge mall). Too bad, due to the rain and flood, most of the shops closed early. :(
We ended up in a bowling place, and both of them tried to teach me to play bowling..
My clumsy finger doesn't really work well with bowling, soooo.. yeah.. can't even beat Steph's or Mark's score :P
Anyway, i can safely say, I've went bowling.. ONCE.. :P
We went back to Mark's hotel, and head to the casino, to catch some live performance.
It was quite okay, but we're all tired. So after a while, Steph and I went to her house.

Late that night, Steph's parents come back from USA. I also met her brothers. All of them were a bunch of nice-warm-friendly people! (THANK YOU for welcoming me in your house! You've made my trip to Manila memorable).. :)

The next day, we try to catch Kina in some radio show. There were 2 radio show planned, but only 1 still on. So we waited, and she finally come with Pauline (www.soulmannalive.com). By the way, Soulmanna live is handling some youtube concert in Asia and Australia (at least: David Choi, Clara Chung, AJ Rafael, etc). They used to be "Monsoon Team", but changed their name sometime earlier this year I think.

Pauline is from Singapore. She's quite surprised to know Mark came all the way from Ireland, and I came from Singapore. I also found out we're on the same flight back to Singapore! Weeee..
Anyway, kina perform two songs, and it was awesome!
She sang Mr. Sun... which followed by the sun actually peeking up! And kinda eased out our worry about the show.

Oh, and I manage to get photo with Kina :)

I also met Jown and Tere (awesome people!), and we spent the noon at McD in Greenhills. The show will be held in Promanade Theatrino, which is in Greenhills.
Since the flood was bad in Manila, so Jown decided she'll book a hotel nearby. We found Elian Hotel (sorry if it's misspelled). We killed the time by playing ukulele, charging phones (yes, our phone batteries dried out soooo fast!), singing, eating, and more singing.. Super fun-relax time.

When we want to go to the venue, Steph and I was surprised to see Kina and Pauline at the lobby.
Apparantely they can't find a cab, and was gonna walk to the venue (it was around 15 minutes walk!!). They brought Kina's guitar as well! Wow, can't imagine how they are going to handle it!
Tere offered Kina and Pauline, that Steph will drive them to the venue..
And sooo.. the awkward drive begin :P
Kina was really quiet (i think she's worried about the weather and how it will affect the show). I am bassically a very introvert person, and Steph needs to focus on the road as it's raining.. Luckily Pauline safe the awkward moment by trying to chat with Steph and me.. :P

We arrived at the venue, and we picked up Tere, Jown, and Marc. In the venue, we met Jeff and Jude. Kuya (brother) Jude shared his story on how he reach the venue.. Look at the link of the video, posted below! It was super inspiring how he manage to reach despite the bad weather, and he still have that positive attitude..
http://soulmannalive.tumblr.com/post/29547152973/kinamanilafanvid1

The show was gonna start at 7 pm. Pauline ask us to join her in the backstage around 6 pm.
She kindly provide us icecream.. YAYYYY! Icecream party backstage!! :D

Kina come out, and hang out with us for a bit. She answer some call from Kinerds who can't make it to the show, and she kindly remind them to be safe.

Then it's time to start openning the door. We help them doing the merch, as the merch team can't make it due to the flood.
This might be the most-internationally merch team ever.. Self claimed, but still.. :P

The show it self is awesome. I cried a bit when she sang Strong enough.. Very beautiful!!!!
When the show was over, the meet and greet ended up with all of us, eating Kina's birthday cake.
There were some left-over, which we pass to Kina and Pauline. (That's where the cake-overdose tweet came, guys!)


And i will close this post with a picture taken by Kuya Jude
Much love to Manila Kinerds.. You're awesome!! <3>

Photo credit: Jude Ng

P.S: So great to meet you guys, and to call you friend!

Left to right: Jeff-Mark-Jown-Steph-Tere-Ayrine..

And Jude holding the camera!